Key takeaways
- Texas does not license roofers at the state level. Roofing permits are issued city by city, never by the state or the county.
- A full tear-off needs a permit in every DFW city we work. Irving requires one for any reroof over 100 square feet, Garland for any reroof valued at $2,000 or more, Richardson once work touches more than 25 percent of the roof area.
- Your roofer should pull it as contractor of record. A contractor who asks you to pull your own permit is a warning sign.
- Permit fees run about $95 to $300 by county: Collin $95 to $250, Dallas $125 to $300, Tarrant $110 to $275, Denton $95 to $260.
- Turnaround is 1 to 3 business days on a clean residential application in Plano and Irving, and often same day in Frisco, Allen, Denton and Garland.
- Most cities inspect at dry-in or at final. A missing permit shows up at resale when the title company runs the permit history.
Yes. Texas does not license roofers at the state level, but every city in Dallas-Fort Worth requires a permit for a full roof replacement, and most require one for any reroof over a small threshold. The fee runs about $95 to $300 depending on the county, your roofer pulls it, and the city inspects the work before the permit closes.
no state license does not mean no permit.
Texas has no state roofing board, no state exam, and no state roofing permit. Homeowners who moved here from Florida or Louisiana find that strange, and it is why this question gets asked so often.
What Texas does have is cities. Every incorporated city in DFW runs its own building department under the International Residential Code with local amendments, and every one we work in requires a permit for a full tear-off. The county has nothing to do with it. Collin County does not issue roofing permits for Plano; the City of Plano does, out of Building Inspections at 1520 K Avenue, Suite 140.
The thresholds are set city by city. Irving requires a permit for any reroof over one square, which is 100 square feet. Garland requires one on any re-roof valued at $2,000 or more. Richardson draws the line at 25 percent of the total roof area. On a hail claim, every one of those lines gets crossed in the first hour of tear-off.
A contractor who asks you to pull your own roofing permit is telling you something. Walk away.
The roofer pulls the permit as contractor of record, with the roofer’s insurance on file at the city. Several DFW cities will not issue one any other way: Denton requires contractor registration first, Garland requires insurance naming the city as certificate holder, and Richardson wants proof of general liability on file. A crew that wants you at the counter is usually a crew that cannot register, the same crew we describe in our guide to spotting a storm chaser.
the 12-city permit table.
Everything below comes from the permit sections of our city pages, which our office keeps current from the jobs we file. Fee bands are the county ranges we price from in the Texas roof cost guide. Where a city does not state a turnaround, the row says “varies” rather than guessing.
| City | County | Portal or office | Permit fee band | Typical turnaround | Who pulls it | Inspection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plano | Collin | Building Inspections, 1520 K Ave, Suite 140; eTRAKiT | $95 to $250 | 1 to 3 business days; up to 5 for metal or a deck profile change | Roof Raiders | Final booked through eTRAKiT, usually within a couple of business days |
| Dallas | Dallas | Development Services, Oak Cliff Municipal Center, 320 E Jefferson Blvd, Room 118; DallasNow | $125 to $300 | A few business days residential; 20 plus commercial | Roof Raiders | Historic districts (Swiss Avenue, Munger Place, State-Thomas) need a Landmark Commission Certificate of Appropriateness first |
| Frisco | Collin, on the Denton line | Building Inspections, 6101 Frisco Square Blvd; Plans and Permits portal | $95 to $250, scales with roof size and deck work | Often same day on the self-service path; a few days with review | Roof Raiders | Final required; drip edge, ice and water at penetrations, ridge ventilation |
| McKinney | Collin | Building Inspections, 401 E. Virginia St; online portal | $95 to $250 | A couple of business days; longer for a material change | Roof Raiders | Rough and final; decking, drip edge, valley ice and water |
| Allen | Collin | Building and Permitting, 305 Century Pkwy; Citizen Self-Service portal | $95 to $250 | Short with a complete packet, often faster than McKinney or Plano | Roof Raiders, permit posted on the house | Dry-in look at decking, underlayment and flashing |
| Richardson | Dallas (north third in Collin) | Building Inspection, 2360 Campbell Creek Blvd, Suite 550; email or in person | $125 to $300 | A few business days | Roof Raiders, liability proof on file | Mid-job decking look on older homes, then final |
| Fort Worth | Tarrant | Development Services Permit Center, lower level of City Hall off Throckmorton St | $110 to $275 | A few business days, varies | Roof Raiders | Final within a few business days of completion; we meet the inspector |
| Arlington | Tarrant | Permit counter, 101 W Abram St (Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego permit separately) | $110 to $275 | A few business days, varies | Roof Raiders | Final; R905 items like drip edge and underlayment |
| Denton | Denton | Building Safety, 401 N. Elm St; filed in person, tracked online | $95 to $260 | A couple of business days, sometimes same day | Roof Raiders, city-registered | Final within a couple of days of request; counter closes at noon Fridays |
| Lewisville | Denton | Building Inspections, 1197 W Main St; MGO Connect | $95 to $260; a standard re-roof lands two-figure to low three-figure | A few business days | Roof Raiders | Decking inspection before shingles, then final |
| Garland | Dallas | Development and Permitting Center, 800 Main St; submittals until 4 p.m. | $125 to $300 | Same day to a couple of business days; slower after a named storm | Roof Raiders, city-registered | Final; decking nail pattern and drip edge |
| Irving | Dallas | Inspections Department, 825 W Irving Blvd, 2nd floor; My Government Online | $125 to $300 | 1 to 3 business days; 5 to 10 commercial | Roof Raiders, card posted | Tear-off and decking inspection before dry-in |
Two official pages are worth bookmarking. Frisco’s Residential Permits page lists self-service permits for replacing “roofs with the same material,” which is why a like-for-like Frisco re-roof can issue the same day, and its Plans and Permits page runs the Electronic Permit and Plan Review portal (972-292-5312). The City of Dallas Building Inspection page states that all permits are submitted through DallasNow, which integrates permitting, planning, platting, inspections and engineering with online status tracking.
The permit is often slower than the roof. A single-story replacement usually finishes in one day and a two-story in two, so a three-day Plano permit is the longest part of the schedule.
Brick single-stories like these in west Plano file through eTRAKiT and usually clear in one to three business days.
what needs a permit, and what usually does not.
| Work | Permit? | What the cities say |
|---|---|---|
| Full tear-off and replacement | Yes, every DFW city | Arlington requires an issued permit before the first shingle comes off |
| Like-for-like, same material | Yes, with a faster path | Frisco issues a self-service permit with no separate plan review; Allen moves fast because like-for-like skips structural review |
| Material change (asphalt to metal or tile) | Yes, with extra review | McKinney adds review; Plano metal re-roofs can stretch to five days, and standing seam over 2,000 square feet needs a stamped engineering letter |
| Decking replacement | Yes, often with an extra inspection | Richardson looks mid-job after the deck is exposed; Irving inspects decking before dry-in |
| Skylights, gutters, solar attachment | Separate trade permits | Lewisville requires them when pulled alongside the roof; a skylight re-flashed into the new roof rides on the roofing permit |
| Small repair under the city threshold | Usually not | Irving under one square, Garland under $2,000, Richardson under 25 percent of total roof area |
| Historic district home in Dallas | Yes, plus a Certificate of Appropriateness | Swiss Avenue, Munger Place, State-Thomas, Junius Heights and the M Streets go to the Landmark Commission first |
The 25 percent number trips people up. Richardson’s 25 percent is a city permit threshold. The 25 percent your adjuster talks about is a Texas insurance rule under 28 TAC 21.1006 that decides whether a hail claim pays for a slope repair or a replacement, covered in our Texas 25 percent rule guide. Same number, two different questions, and a skylight repair can sit under one line and over the other.
Once the new shingles cover the decking, nobody can prove what came out. That is why Irving and Allen inspect before dry-in.
an unpermitted roof is a problem you pay for later.
The permit on a $22,000 Plano roof in Landmark Pro costs $95 to $250. The cost of skipping it shows up years later, three ways.
Resale. Garland is the clearest example: when a house sells, the title company runs the permit history, and an unpermitted roof on a major exterior component is a finding. In Fort Worth, a contractor who disappears before the final inspection leaves an open permit on the property record, which can complicate a sale or a refinance. Texas sellers also sign a disclosure notice that asks whether repairs or alterations were made without the necessary permits. If you are the buyer, the city permit history is the first place we look to date a roof, which is the method in our guide to how old your roof is.
Insurance scope. The inspection is the only independent record that the code items went in: synthetic underlayment, ice and water shield at eaves and valleys, drip edge on every eave and rake, and the ventilation ratio. Those are the items a carrier’s first scope tends to leave off, and when the home was built under an older code they are recoverable as code upgrades under 28 TAC 21.1006. Without a permit and an inspection card, the proof is a photo on a phone. We document the damage, we meet your adjuster on the roof, and the permit record backs both.
HOA. In Addison, the Bent Tree and Les Lacs associations run architectural review with approved shingle colors on top of the town’s permit. A roof that skipped both is two violations, and the HOA letter usually arrives first.
The permit fee is the cheapest line on the estimate. The inspection it buys is the only independent check on the work.
how we handle the permit on every job.
On a Roof Raiders estimate the permit is its own line item, priced for your city, so the number is on the page before you sign. We pull it in our name as contractor of record, the city inspects after the install, and the permit closes before the job does. That is the same answer we give in the cost guide FAQ.
We file the day you sign. In Plano we upload the scope packet through eTRAKiT the same day; in Dallas and Garland the same-day filing matters because a historic district review or a post-storm backlog can add weeks. In Denton we pre-package the application with the manufacturer specs, the ice and water layout, the ventilation calculation and our registration, which is the difference between a fast turn and a kick-back.
Dried in and ready for the dry-in inspection that Allen and Irving run before a single shingle goes on.
We keep every city registration current, and we have been pulling permits in Lewisville since 2022, so we know which inspectors want photo documentation and which want to be on the roof. We post the permit on the house in Allen, keep the card on site through close-out in Irving, schedule the rough and final inspections, and meet the inspector in Fort Worth. We do not send a final invoice until the permit closes.
For the day-by-day, our what to expect during a roof replacement post walks the schedule, and the roof replacement page covers the CertainTeed systems we install. When you are comparing bids, our guide to comparing roofing estimates shows where a missing permit line hides, and the free roof cost calculator prices the permit by county automatically.
frequently asked questions.
Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Texas? Yes, in every Dallas-Fort Worth city. Texas does not license roofers at the state level, so the permit comes from the city, not the state or county. Each city sets its own threshold: Irving for any reroof over 100 square feet, Garland for any reroof valued at $2,000 or more, Richardson once work touches more than 25 percent of the roof area. A full tear-off crosses all of them.
Who pulls the roofing permit, the homeowner or the roofer? The roofer, as contractor of record, in the roofer’s name. Denton requires contractor registration before a permit can be pulled, Garland requires insurance naming the city as certificate holder, and Richardson wants proof of general liability on file. A contractor who asks you to pull your own permit usually cannot register with the city, which is a reason to get another bid.
How much does a roof permit cost in DFW? About $95 to $300, set by each city but clustering by county: Collin $95 to $250, Dallas $125 to $300, Tarrant $110 to $275, Denton $95 to $260. Frisco scales the fee with roof size and deck work. On our estimates the permit is its own line item, so you see the number before you sign, not as a change order after tear-off.
How long does a roofing permit take in Plano or Dallas? Plano Building Inspections usually returns a residential re-roof permit in one to three business days through eTRAKiT, up to five if the job goes to metal or changes the deck profile. Dallas clears a standard residential reroof in a few business days through DallasNow, but a historic district home on Swiss Avenue or in Munger Place needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first, which adds weeks.
Does a small roof repair need a permit? Usually not if it stays under the city’s threshold, and the threshold is the city’s call. Irving exempts work under one square (100 square feet), Garland exempts repairs valued under $2,000, and Richardson permits anything over 25 percent of the total roof area. A hail repair that replaces a full slope is almost always over the line, so we check the city rule before writing the scope.
What happens if a roof was replaced without a permit? It surfaces at resale or refinance. Title companies in Garland run the permit history and flag an unpermitted roof on a major exterior component, and an open permit in Fort Worth can complicate a sale. You also lose the inspection record that proves code items like synthetic underlayment, ice and water shield and drip edge went in, which matters on a later insurance claim.
Does the city inspect the roof after it is installed? Most DFW cities inspect at least once and several inspect twice. Allen and Irving look at decking, underlayment and flashing at dry-in, before shingles go on. Richardson and Lewisville add a decking look on older homes. Frisco, Garland and Fort Worth run a final inspection to close the permit. We schedule every inspection and do not send a final invoice until the permit closes.
If your roof is due, start with a free inspection and a written estimate that shows the permit as its own line. Call (214) 326-3106, run the free roof cost calculator for a county-priced number, and ask about our in-house payment plans on qualified projects: a larger upfront deposit and a balance paid on a schedule we agree on together, with no bank and no third party.
